Aug. 6, 2013

Written by

Walter F. Roche Jr.

The Tennessean

Although California officially has reported no cases of fungal meningitis in a nationwide outbreak, an apparent California victim has filed suit against the Massachusetts firm blamed for the illnesses.

Her case has been transferred to a federal court in Boston, where dozens of other cases have been merged before a federal judge.

The transfer of the California case came on the same day the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported two more deaths from the outbreak, both in Michigan. Sixty-three deaths have been reported nationwide, 15 of them among patients treated in Tennessee.

The number of victims treated in Tennessee has remained at 153 since the last report a month ago.

According to the CDC, 749 patients have been infected by the fungus-tainted spinal steroid shipped by the New England Compounding Center to health facilities across the country. That is the same number as a month ago.

Those CDC totals, however, do not include any cases from California, and CDC officials said that none had been reported to them by the California Public Health Department.

California health officials said Monday they were looking into the recent report, from Encino.

The lawsuit, originally filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court, names NECC and the Encino Outptatient Surgery Center as defendants. It was filed on behalf of Dawn Younani, 58, a Los Angeles-area resident who got three shots of methylprednisolone acetate at the surgery center.

According to the complaint, the shots were administered Aug. 14, Aug. 28 and Sept. 11 in 2012.

“All three epidural spinal steroid injections were manufactured, sold and distributed by NECC,” the complaint states.

The surgery center has denied responsibility and has filed a counterclaim against NECC.